Once Upon A Time...

Snow White

...there was a young maiden named Snow White, who had skin as white as snow and hair as black as night. One day, her step-mother, envious of her beauty, ordered the huntsman to kill Snow White. Unable to bring himself to kill her, the huntsman chased her into the forest, where Snow met seven dwarves living in a small cabin. One day, the wicked step-mother discovered Snow still lived. She transformed herself into an old crone, and killed the young woman with a poisoned apple.

Hansel and Gretel

...Gretel was abandoned in the city by her cruel husband. But Gretel, always clever, had known her husband's intentions to leave her, and had left a trail of jelly beans all the while. Alone in a strange place, Gretel followed the trail of jelly beans back to the train station.

The brave Gretel looked around the train station. She longed to return home, to the village where she had grown up and her cosy cottage. But Gretel knew her husband would try to lose her again. She gathered her courage, and purchased a ticket to her grandmother's hometown instead.

Twelve Dancing Princesses

...there was a queen with twelve beautiful daughters. Every morning, when her daughters awoke, their shoes had been worn through. She had new shoes made, and again the shoes wore through overnight.

Suspicious, the next night the queen only pretended to go to sleep, and watched her daughters' room. Just as she suspected, once the castle was quiet for the night, one-by-one the girls snuck through their window.

Free in the night, they began to dance gleefully through the fields as they never could in the day.

Little Red Riding Hood

...there was a girl who always wore a red hijab. For this reason, she came to be known as Little Red. One day, Little Red's mother gave her cookies to bring to her grandmother, who lived on her own on the other side of the metro area. She warned Little Red to be careful of bigots in the city, but Little Red was not afraid.

On her way through the city Little Red heard a group of men wolf-whistle at another woman. The woman was clearly uncomfortable, but she also was clearly unable to leave. Little Red smiled with all her teeth as she walked up to the woman, exclaiming how excited she was to see her. She pretended to be an old friend as she escorted the woman away from the now-discouraged men. The woman thanked Little Red, and they both continued safely on their journeys.